Importance of Operational Efficiency

The assignment provided focuses on the importance of operational efficiency in achieving energy efficiency and exhaust emission reduction in construction operations. It reviews relevant literature and research studies, including articles and journals such as the Journal of Construction Engineering and Management and the International Journal of Production Economics. The summary includes specific details about the topics covered, such as the role of leadership styles in corporate social responsibility and the mediating effect of subordinates' competence on organizational citizenship behavior.

MANAGEMENT AND
OPERATIONS
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INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are two different branches within the field of business.
These branches are essential for working of the organisation. This report discuss about the
characteristics and role of manager and leaders in organisation. There impact on company. It
discusses about roles and responsibilities of manager and leader and how they affect operational
efficiencies of organisation. Marks & Spencer is a multinational company who deals in selling
off clothes and food merchandise in parts of UK and Europe.
TASK 1
1. Introduction of M&S Ltd and its management structure
Marks & Spencer is a British multinational company established in 1884. It is one of the
leading manufacturers of cloth, luxury food items and home products. Currently, M&S has 1000
stores across UK and has started selling branded products under its food production line. It
gained popularity after it adopted strategy of selling British manufactured products which
brought a competitive advantage to company. In the year 1960, it opened its first shop in the
Asian market in Kabul, Afghanistan. Today it operates in more than 100 countries worldwide.
M&S follows a flat organisational structure. In this form of structure, there are limited
number of levels between the top management and employees. This increases responsibility of
employees and their respective departments. Flat organisational structure is form of pyramid but
in Marks & Spencer is broader and flat this means fewer level of management between top and
front line employees although it they have different department heads and manager along with
executive manager at top. This structure is followed by company to encourage employees’
participation and their accountability which helps in reducing its expenditure. Around 65000
people work in M&S stores in different roles like manager, department’s head and employees
and this structure helps them to motivate their team and people.
2. Define manager and leader and compare their roles and characteristics.
 Manager: An individual who has a duty or in charge of a particular task, activities, or
who is responsible for controlling, handling and administering a group of people or staff.
Manager often has group of employees who report him or her.
 Leader: Any person who has the capability of influencing a group of people in achieving
certain objective or goals. A leader commands or led a group of people in an organisation
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or a country. Leader inspires an individual to achieve its objectives or dreams (Kato,
Corp, 2012).
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Characteristics of a Manager and Leader
Manager Leader
 Manager of M&S has a positive
attitude and approach towards their
work and employees.
 Leader within an organisation is able to
communicate it thoughts and ideas to
their employees.
 Nature of managers in company is
versatile and flexible and is adaptive to
changes in environment.
 Creativity is an essential quality of a
leader. Thus, the creativity of a leader
helps company to achieve success.
 In M&S manager are committed to
their work and team members.
 A leader of Marks & Spencer has an
honest approach towards company.
 Managers of a company have balanced
and focused attitude towards
organisation and work.
 Leader effectively delegate roles and
responsibility of organisation.
Roles of Leader and Manager:
Manager Leader
 Manager helps in creating goals of an
organisation. Example: goal of M&S to
have sustainable retail business
 Leader helps to create a vision for
achieving a set goal or objective by
helping employees of company on how
to achieve that goal.
 They always follow set style of
management (Subramanian and
Ramanathan 2012).
 A leader develops own style and has
unique way of working this help M&S
Ltd to be succeeded in unfavourable
condition.

 The role of manager in Marks &
Spencer is to build an organisation
structure i.e. followed within company.
Example, it uses a Flat organisation
structure.
 Role of a leader is to build a
relationship among organisation and
stakeholders for smooth functioning of
a company.
3. Differences in managerial functions and leadership roles in a range of management theories
and concepts
Management theories and Concepts are applied at workplace as these theories help in
achieving productivity and quality in operations. Managers use combination of theories instead
of a single theory. It is used according to a situation or condition prevailing within organisation.
Some theories of Management are:
 Contingency Theory: This theory states that manager makes immediate decisions for a
prevailing situation or circumstance in an organisation rather than applying set theories.
The manager takes appropriate action based and chooses that alternative which will help
in solving problems.
 System Theory: In this, manager learns how different systems affect working in
organisation and how workers or employees affect different systems within company.
This theory has broad perspective which allows managers to understand events and
different patterns of work (Bowers and et. al, 2013).
 Chaos Theory: It is a mathematical approach which can be applied in management.
According to this theory, change is constant and cannot be controlled. The growth in
organisation creates susceptible events and increases complexity within company.
Differences in managerial functions and leadership roles according to above mentioned theory.
Basis Managerial Functions Leadership Roles
Contingency Theory The function of management
would be to maintain
transformation that occurs in
an organisation.
The role of a leader would be
to inspire a change to resolve a
problem.
System Theory Manager needs to understand Leader anticipated the business

how work is done within an
organisation.
environment along with
culture of workplace to
correctly anticipate
opportunities and threats.
Chaos Theory Function of management is to
make a process or system to be
followed in chaotic situation.
Leadership role is to maintain
complex environment of n
organisation and reduces chaos
at workplace.
4. Roles of a leader and functions of a manager
Situation 1: Slow growth in the food business of M&S Ltd
Manager of Marks & Spencer would formulate strategies to increase the sales of food
products in market. The new promotional techniques would be adopted by company like
providing discounts, or sampling products. It is a duty of manager is to check pit-holes of
previous marketing strategies and improvised them. However, a leader would motivate
employees of food business to improve their productivity and encourage them to be accountable
for their work.
Situation 2: Company is facing a challenge in expansion of e-commerce business.
In above case, function of the manager is to open a new store on online platform and formulate
plan and strategies for employees who are working on these shops. Whereas, leader is
responsible to evaluate and anticipate environment of the online platform.
5. Different management and leadership theories to support growth and sustainable performance.
Different types of leadership theories are as follows:
 Situational Leadership:In this form of leadership style , leader change or modify it style
in accordance to the situation or to level of subordinates and their maturity. There are
four types of leadership styles they are:
1. Telling: In this form of style employees perform according to directions of
leaders. This style is adopted by company at times when employees are new at
workplace,

2. Selling: Leader is involved in day to day activities and take feedback of
employees regarding decision-making but decision is taken by leader alone. It is
done in M&S Ltd to encourage employee participation in company.
3. Participating: In this form of style leader delegate more responsibility and
authority to employees and give feedback in regard to their work.
4. Delegating: In this situational leadership style leader's involvement or
participation is least as employees are aware of their jobs (Bai, Sarkis, Wei and
Koh, 2012). Contingency Leadership: This theory is opposite from situational leadership, according
to this theory a leader should be able to solve a particular situation with the help of it
skills and qualities. It states that leadership style cannot be modified or changed. Marks &
Spencer has adopted a contingency theory to overcome the challenges faced by company
at time of downfall of business. Company has adopted this approach to overcome
obstacles of there business. System Leadership: In this form of leadership style, leaders within organisation creates
environment in which all people work together to achieve targets or goal of company.
This is system is established through quality of leader like, personal core value, their
behaviour and the way they evaluate a given information. Organisation like M&S Ltd
adapt this leadership style to encourage there employees to increase there productivity
and accountability in organisation (Strauch, Lima, Volk, Lorz and Makeschin, 2013).
 Transactional leadership: This form of leadership is found at all levels of management.
In this style leader works with team to analyse and know what changes are needed within
team. Leader helps in creating a vision for employees and motivate them to achieve their
vision.
6. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different theories and approaches.
Strengths and weakness of situational leadership is:
Strengths Weakness
It can be applied to any problem of
organisation.
This theory dose not specified how much a
leader should be dedicated to it work.
This theory has a practical approach. It fails to deal with certain demographic issues

like gender and education.
It is easy to understand. Leadership style cannot be modified or
changed.
Strengths and weakness of contingency leadership is:
Strengths Weakness
It has a valid and reliable approach. It do not support at time of mismatch of
leadership style or situation.
This theory help leader and oppose in changing
their styles.
Theory is very complex and difficult to
understand.
It has broadened scope of leadership and
emphasise on the importance of leadership
style.
This theory is reactive in nature and not
proactive which means leader waits for things
to be unfold rather than responding to the
situation.
Strengths and weakness of system leadership is:
Strengths Weakness
This theory help company to be adaptive to
current business environment.
It is not applied to small scale industry.
It helps organisation to focus over multiple
dimensions of management.
At times, this theory dose not sound productive
to organisation.
This help in getting uniform decision, thus
reducing conflicts in organisation (Du, Swaen,
Lindgreen and Sen, 2013).
It cannot be applied at time of contingency.
Strengths and weakness of transformational leadership is:
Strengths Weakness
This leadership style helps in motivating
employees of the organisation.
It is affected by personal bias of the leader.

They reward employees for there creativity and
innovation.
This theory is difficult to be thought or
practiced.
It influences and encourage employees to
achieve the objectives of company along with
there individual goals.
It may fail to encourage or motivate certain
group of staff (Giltinane, 2013).
7. How managers and leaders make impacts on the organisation and
recommendations for future improvements.
Managers are key aspect of every organisation. The performance of management has
great impact on overall functioning of company. Manager who perform there duties and
responsibilities effectively will help organisation to reach to higher position. Also, employees are
encouraged by the effective management which results in better productivity.
Leaders in any organisation will create a direct influence over employees. These leaders
are role model for employees and inspire or influence individual to achieve there goals. They
help in creating vision and established a concept of team work which help to achieve desired
goals of organisation.
Recommendation for future improvements:
 Established a strong communication network between employees and managers.
 Managers/ leaders should take feedback from there employees.
 Leader should properly analyse the external environment and should be able to take risk
for business.
 The manager should address to pros and cons of the every alternatives before applying to
organisation (Lian and Tui, 2012).
TASK 2.
1.Key approaches to operation management.
Operational management is defined as important part of management practices which is
conducted with the purpose of increasing the working efficiency as well as productivity. In
context of marks and Spencer organisation. Business entity has made drastic improvement in its
operational management system. By making the changes in operational management system ,
firm has able to improve quality of products and services (Slack, 2015). Effective operational
management system has helped an enterprise in providing the high level of satisfaction to its

client. The several operational management approaches adopted by manager in Marks & Spencer
organisation are :
Six Sigma- It is considered to be as an effective approach which can be applied to the
production as well as manufacturing procedure within an enterprise. Six sigma approach has
assisted marks and Spencer company in improving the quality of goods. It has also aided firm in
minimising the wastage which is generated during production process.
Total quality management- This operational management approach is considered to be
as an effective. As it allows employees to contribute or participate in the target of improving
quality and productivity (Heizer, 2016). Total quality management approach is considered to be
as helpful in bringing the change or improvement in complete business system.
Lean production- The main purpose of implementing this approach in operational
department is reduced the wastage and minimise the extra cost. Lean production approach
emphasizes on bringing improvement in Business procedure.
Just in time approach- This approach is affiliated to the inventory management. Just in
time approach is also accepted as a strategy utilized by manager for increasing efficiency and
reducing production losses or waste by receiving raw material only when it is needed.
2.Roles and responsibilities of managers and leaders in successful management of
the operation.
The role played by managers of Marks & Spencer has helped company in achieving
desired results in a given time. Managers within company has effectively managed raw material
procurement and established a system for inventory and logistic management of clothing and
food department. The marketing manager of company has formulated strategies to increase sales
of cloth merchandise in various countries across the globe. Also, they have established a vision
of green lens or producing eco-friendly products to attain sustainable production and in a cost
effective manner.
3. Importance and value of the key approaches to operations management in
achieving organizational objectives successfully.
The importance of key approaches of operation management in organisational success is:
 The effective designing of the operation system would lead to increase in productivity
and help company to fulfil there assigned task on given time.

 These key approaches help organisation to forecast for future events and plan
accordingly.
 This help organisation to achieve a competitive advantage in terms of customers or
stakeholders/clients.
 Due to flexibility in operation help company to achieve product quality and improve it
customer services (Peng and Lai, 2012).
4. Evaluate how managers and leaders could be effective in improving operational efficiencies.
Managers and leaders can improve operational efficiencies through:
 The trained manager would help in reducing operational problems like inventory
management, logistics, etc.
 Leaders help in motivating employees to achieve set targets in given time.
 Effective operational manager helps to improve quality of products through paying
attention to quality of products/services, this motivate employees to perform there duties
properly (Kortmann, Gelhard, Zimmermann and Piller, 2014).
 Strong operational leader help there team workers to meet target by encouraging and
providing the proper training and tools to complete the work without any obstacles.
5.The impact of external business environment factors on operational management
decisions.
Impact of external business environment:
 Due to implication of Brexit in UK has affects the decision of managers as they are
affected by high labour turnover. This forces manager to employ skilled labour or to
reduce employee turnover.
 Inflation in economy affects decision of operational managers. They are required to take
decision to whether reduce the quality of product or increase price of products (Ahn and
Lee, 2012).
 Operational managers are affected by external environment condition and are forced to
produce eco-friendly products or to adopt environment friendly production techniques.
6. Critical evaluation of the application of operations management and the factors
that impact on the wider business environment.
Applications of operational management are as follows:

 Scheduling: It is an essential task of operational management. In scheduling managers
properly assigned the task in a proper order and delegates that to team members
according to there skills. This help employees and managers to properly perform the task.
 Inventory and logistic Management: Operational managers effectively manages inventory
and logistic for getting on point sales. It is helps effective supervision. But it requires to
have proper logistic portfolio (Alexander, ed., 2013).
 Capacity Management: This system is used to check that information technology tools
are in right form so that they can meet current and future business demands.
7. Suggest recommendations for future improvements to be taken by the
organisation.
The operational management is at the heart of every organisation and thus it requires that
manager performs assigned task effectively. To increase productivity and efficiencies of
operational management following are the recommendations:
 Optimum utilisation of Resource: Manager should see that resources of the organisation
should be utilised properly and effectively. This will help in reducing duplication and
wastage of resources.
 Allocation of Resources: The resources of company should be properly allocated to all
the departments so that conflicts dose not arrived between various departments.
 Training to operation Managers: Proper training should be given to managers and leaders
so that they can solve the problems more quickly and effectively.
CONCLUSION.
Managers and leaders are essential for successful running of business. Roles and
responsibility played by managers help organisation to achieve there goals and set targets.
Different leadership styles like, contingent, situational, etc. help to motivate employees to take
participation in decision-making process of company this results in increase of faith and loyalty
of employees towards company. Marks & Spencer has effective team of leaders and managers
which help organisation to create a vision and achieve it through there competent and skilled
workforce.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahn, C. R. and Lee, S., 2012. Importance of operational efficiency to achieve energy efficiency
and exhaust emission reduction of construction operations. Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management. 139(4). pp.404-413.
Alexander, K. ed., 2013. Facilities management: theory and practice. Routledge.
Bai, C., Sarkis, J., Wei, X. and Koh, L., 2012. Evaluating ecological sustainable performance
measures for supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International
Journal. 17(1). pp.78-92.

Bowers, A and et. al, 2013. A systems engineering approach to M&S standards development:
application to the coalition battle management language.
Du, S., Swaen, V., Lindgreen, A. and Sen, S., 2013. The roles of leadership styles in corporate
social responsibility. Journal of business ethics. 114(1). pp.155-169.
Giltinane, C. L., 2013. Leadership styles and theories. Nursing Standard (through 2013). 27(41).
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system, data processing method, and operations management program. U.S. Patent
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